Students build app to extend the lifespan of things

Meet Sift, a team of sustainably-minded rising juniors building a secondhand eCommerce marketplace designed for college students in the eLab Summer Accelerator Program. 

Their technology allows users to swipe or sift through and purchase pre-loved items posted by other users. The more users swipe, the more the app tailors their feed to their interests and tastes.

Eric Ahn is serving as the company's chief executive officer. As an Operations Research and Finance Engineering (ORFE) major, Ahn has a keen eye for business. Additionally, his stellar programming abilities make him a great asset to the team.

Ben Howe, a physics major, is the creative visionary for the company and is taking on the role of chief operating officer. He helped to construct this idea by identifying a gap in the secondhand shopping industry. 

Burke Pagano uses his experience working in a startup company and the skills he learned in Keller's entrepreneurship courses to help build the business model, establish a go-to-market strategy, and nail down the team's consumer value proposition. This ORFE major will act as Sift's chief financial officer.

Of course, the team needs talented computer scientists, and they found them in Baris Onat and Bill Ao.  

Onat has been instrumental in the progress made thus far in building the technology needed for the company to succeed. As the chief data officer, he has dedicated countless hours to ensuring the app's construction matches the team's vision. 

Ao is an effective leader on the technology side. He has previously worked as a developer in a startup and is using that experience to inform many of the team's most important decisions. Ao serves as Sift's chief technology officer.

This team was not immune to the typical early-stage startup pivots and readjustments. With the support of the incredible network of eLab mentors and advisors, they identified some issues in their initial business model which was based on a barter system for trading goods.  

"Our advisors pushed us to make changes in our business to ensure the smoothest go-to-market possible. We feel confident that these changes will allow us to finish the construction of our application and have a business model that works for our company and our users," said Howe.

The team will be working 'round the clock to get their business solution up and running by the end of the program. However, Howe and his team see their app as essential for navigating sustainability and tackling waste management. "Sustainable secondhand shopping is the future, and we are confident our company can lead the way in this industry," said Howe.

The Sift team will pitch their startup at Keller's annual Demo Days on campus on Aug 2 and New York City on Aug 4. The eLab Summer Accelerator is a 10-week immersive program providing the tools and resources students need to develop and launch their own startup.